Please help!! School does not want to provide 504 high tech accommodations for dysgraphia-help with counter arguments?
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Anonymous
| DC has a 504..she has a neuropsych from children's 2 years ago but it didn't have ed testing and only a brief IQ test. I actually had a lawyer at the meeting with me today. She said wait for another year or 2 to do neuropsych...school is pretty aligned against us. |
Anonymous
You never said what writing program the school uses. If it is Lucy Calkins, so many students will not be spelling correctly or writing well. So, in comparison your child seems fine. I posted a couple of times earlier saying don't waste money on advocates or lawyers. It is better to just spend the money on tutors, keyboarding classes/programs, teaching yourself a program like Noteability so you can teacher your child how to use it, and then taking pictures of worksheets yourself and uploading them into Noteability to use with an iPad and stylus. Even if you got the most amazing IEP, schools in general due an AWFUL job with dysgraphia. |
Anonymous
I don't even think they have a writing curriculum...it's Mcps. I wanted them to let me scan in worksheets or have them do it...but the best we could get was she can type her answer online with better word prediction software/spell check. |
Anonymous
Why in the world would you want word prediction and spell check? Are you consulting with experts on this? |
Anonymous
NP. As you pointed out, the child needs time to learn to type. It makes sense to start doing that NOW. Did your child produce 2-3x more before learning to type? Mine did not! He is severely dysgraphic and we were a low tech family so he didn't have experience. But writing by hand never worked for him and got increasingly worse, despite all of our best efforts. I am sorry, OP. I used TTRS a few minutes a day with my son for YEARS. I highly recommend. It is a program for dyslexics (my son is not dyslexic) but it was perfect. Also, we pulled our son from FCPS and homeschooled. I don't think FCPS had any idea how to help him. |
Anonymous
That’s not a neuropsych. How was dysgraphia diagnosed with out one. |
Anonymous
| What is this? At my kids's shools, everyone types essays. |
Anonymous
Since you have a lawyer, go ask your lawyer these questions, and stop posting information in a public forum that the school staff could recognize. - special education attorney |
Anonymous
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Is this public or private?
If private, it sounds like the school is making reasonable accommodations. That's all theyre required to do. If you want better services, go to a public school where they have better resources and are more obligated to help. |
Anonymous
MCPS has a writing curriculum and they are constantly buying new ones. https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/english/elementary/writing |
Anonymous
DP. Word prediction and spell check is what our neuropsych and SLP recommended once DS could at least get the first couple letters of what he wanted to spell correct or close enough to trigger useful predictive suggestions. Why? Because writing tests different things. If you assign an essay to check comprehension of a novel, then spelling is getting in the way of demonstrating understanding. Kids who have difficulty with physically producing handwriting or with producing writing with age appropriate spelling, grammar and punctuation need accommodations for those problems (which are developmentally behind age/grade because of disability) so they can access other parts of instruction which are geared toward teaching kids to articulate and develop their ideas according to various conventions or to assessing kids understanding. |
Anonymous
You brought a lawyer with you, of course it will be combative rather than cooperative. |
Anonymous
+1. You need an IEP. 504s are worthless |
Anonymous
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Poster #2 is ++++
With a computer your kid can enlarge text while they write, but turn it in 10pt font. The enlarged text may help. Teachers may not want the computer because they feel in 3rd grade your kid will need help running it, staying off games, ect. It maybe they don’t want to deal with it. Lawyer/Advocate |
Anonymous
Poster 2 here. I have used lawyers and educational advocates at different times. TBH, I was surprised at the degree to which MCPS was able to stonewall the lawyer. I think having a lawyer made MCPS just put walls up and wait to be sued. I needed immediate resolution and a lawsuit wouldn’t help. Having a lawyer at the early stage was like dropping the nuclear bomb immediately, and when the school refused my next escalation option (a lawsuit) was unattractive. So, I shifted my approach. In early stages (asking for 504 or IEP or asking for changes), when the school is refusing me, I bring in an educational advocate who is respected and has had teaching experience. The educational advocate is able to serve several purposes - they know what the school system does (as opposed to the school). So when the school says “we don’t” or “we can’t”, the advocate can actually say “I have seen other kids get this” or “here is a different way of meeting the need that you can do” etc. The advocate is also a professional voice in the room. I am constantly shocked by the mysogyny of a system that dismisses me as an emotional mom who could not possibly have any legal or educational knowledge, but listens to my (male) advocate who says *exactly the same thing I did*. The advocate is also a credible 3rd party witness when I escalate. And, the advocate leaves room for me to threaten to escalate by bringing in an attorney. My advice would be - use the summer for cursive tutoring (if that is a reasonable effort given the Tourettes), keyboarding practice and teaching speech to text dictation. I strongly disagree with the lawyer about waiting on neuropsych- 3rd grade is old enough for a full neuropsych that includes full IQ and achievement testing. Waiting 1-2 more years is just letting the problems multiply and your child’s psyche takes a hit. Part of your problem is likely that you do not have standardized normed achievement data to back up what you are saying about child’s below age/grade level writing and reading achievement, so school is collecting subjective and non-normed, non- standardized data which they can manipulate and that enables them to deny the substantial impact or adverse educational impact. You say you have a “neuropsych” but w/o the IQ and achievement testing it is not a full neuropsych. I see your main problem as being in the wrong track. You have asked for a 504 plan, and even though the school has a Child Find obligation that applies to kids asking for an IEP, because of the legal framework, they can more easily evade that obligation or argue that they have fulfilled it with a skimpy assessment under 504. That, together with the fact that you are expressing concerns that she is falling behind, means, IMO, that you need to be asking for an IEP. If you can afford a private assessment, schedule that. It often takes 3-5 months to get an appointment and get the report back. Spend the time between now and the assessment gathering your own ”data” about your kids reading and writing. Journal any difficulties over the summer. When school starts again, save all written work samples. Monitor any longer writing assignments to be done at home - how ling is it taking? does she need assistance? is there a difference when you let her use assistance at home (scribe, computer typing or dictation, etc.). What are “grades” at school? How is she compensating? Are other good grades in English averaging out her difficulties so that they go unnoticed? Document difficulties by emails to the teachers. Get follow up about how the accommodations granted are working. About 15 days before the report is due request an IEP meeting. It must be scheduled w/i 30 days. Provide the private neuropsych to the team a week before the meeting. Use the parent IEP request to lay out the basis of your request (1 disorder, 2 adverse educational impact and 3) need for special instruction). Make sure you get 5 day papers - including all educational records the school will present at the meeting (teacher reports, etc). The school may take additional time to gather classroom data for 60 days at the end of which they must have the eligibility determination meeting. If you can’t afford your own private neuropsych, you can force the school to do the psychoed assessment by filing for an IEP. TBH, you could try to file right away for the IEP and they would have to do it even over the summer, but you may have difficulty getting teacher documentation if you don’t ask *right now* because basically school will be out and teachers gone. Without teacher reports, you do not have the “adverse educational” piece and may have difficulty to pass you on from the first screening eligibility meeting. So you might just wait to file for IEP until a couple months into school so you can collect data. If you disagree with the school’s assessment in the IEP process, you can request an Independent Educational Evaluation, which the school pays for. So, it can be the long way to get a private psych eval paid for, when one cannot afford oneself. |